Latest revision as of 17:18, April 24, 2013

Spyridon (Vlachos).

Archbishop Spyridon (Vlachos) of Athens was the Archbishop of Athens of the Church of Greece from 1949 to 1956.

Life

Spyridon Vlachos, Greek: Σπυρίδων Βλάχος, was born in Chili (Greek: Χήλη), in present-day northern Turkey during the latter part of the nineteenth century. After completing his secondary education he attended the Theological School of Halki in the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. After his graduation he served as a senior preacher in Kavala in northern Greece, then part of the Ottoman empire, where he gave moral and material support to the Greek struggle for Macedonia, particularly in Northern Epirus, during the Balkan Wars.

In 1906, he was elected Metropolitan of Vella and Konitsa in Epirus in northwestern Greece. In 1916, Metr. Spyridon was elected Metropolitan of Ioannina, in a free northwestern Greece. In 1949, Metr. Spyridon was elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and in which position he worked to reorganize the Church after the chaos of the Second World War and Greek Civil War.